I find variants of the following conversation quite annoying and tiresome:
Person: (talks about a concept that (s)he thinks is pretty new and original, but in fact isn’t.)
Me: Ah, that’s (commonly accepted term for that concept).
Person: See, that’s what I mean! Why do you have to apply labels to everything!? It’s impossible to have a conversation with you!
I’m sure that, by “labels”, those people mean “words in the dictionary”… but why do they always have to use that argument? Do they find the fact that the other person insists on using English (or any other language) too “limiting” for their “vast, open, non-prejudiced” minds?
Sigh…
Sorry for the rant. Never mind that.
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That reaction is pure fear. The one making the “using labels” accusation is so fearful that he/she believes that if you just so happen to be aware of something that they were not, then you must be calling them “stupid” or looking down upon them. So instead of recognizing that they can learn something, that they have not already achieved that mythical state of omniscience, they lash out at you to win the emotional battle since they stand no chance on the field of reason.